BRUSSELS: Europe should side with the United States in its “AI war” with China, the US ambassador to the EU said on Friday, raising concerns about Brussels efforts to “decouple” from Washington on tech.

The European Union this week unveiled plans for slashing dependence on American and Asian technology, including favouring European firms in the most sensitive public contracts for cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

Asked about them at a conference, US Ambassador Andrew Puzder said he had yet to study the plans in detail, but was generally worried by the direction of travel.

“I do get concerned when Europe attempts to decouple from the United States on these tech issues,” Puzder told the Brussels Economic Security Forum in the Belgian capital.

“We’re in an AI war with China. I think it’s important for Western civilisation that the United States win,” he said.

“Were Beijing to prevail, it might use its technological edge in an economically coercive manner — to Europe’s detriment,” he added.

“It’s important that Europe and the United States remain partners,” he said.

The EU’s “tech sovereignty” package aims to boost domestic manufacturing in key tech sectors as Europe plays catch up with the United States and China.

Brussels sees the issue as existential as companies from outside the 27-nation bloc provide more than 80 per cent of its digital products, services, infrastructure and intellectual property, according to the European Commission.

The EU worries its soft underbelly has been exposed after crises over chips and rare earths with China last year, coupled with fears that US President Donald Trump could one day pull the plug on American cloud computing via a “kill switch”.

But Puzder warned that Europe, which is yet to spawn an AI behemoth and suffers from high energy costs, was too far behind to “catch up on its own” in the AI race.

“It can catch up by partnering with the United States, which is what we’re hoping will happen,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2026